Tutorial: Adding Notes to a New Song |
Having just created a new song in the previous step of the tutorial, you might be eager to start adding new notes. You might have already explored this on your own already. There is a good chance, however, that you have not discovered some of the ways that you can add notes in Composer other than choosing notes from the Note Palette and clicking the mouse where you want to add them. Overall, there are three different physical devices you can use to enter notes in Composer, and using each of these various devices there are alternative methods you can use for entering notes:
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Use only your computer keyboard to enter notes, by typing the duration of the note you wish to add, such as "8" for 8th note, "16" for sixteenth note, or "41d" for a quarter note with one dot. Use the, , , and keys to determine the position of the note to be added. Then hit the key to add the note. If you tend to prefer using the computer keyboard over using the mouse, you will like this method.
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The procedures below illustrate each of the above six methods of entering notes-- 1(a), 1(b), 2, 3(a), 3(b), and 3(c). If you do not have a MIDI keyboard or input device, then skip the last two illustrations. Method 1(a): Point and click the mouse to add notes, choosing their durations from the Note Duration Palette. This is the most obvious way to add notes. First, you choose the duration of the note you wish to add. Then you click the mouse where you wish to add the note. To add a note by first choosing its duration:
-- OR -- Type SHIFT+N. In most cases, Composer will automatically switch to Add Mode. The mouse cursor will turn to the shape of a red note, which duration value represents the current to-be-added note duration. In the above example, the main Beat Ruler marks are at every quarter note beat, and the smaller ruler marks are at eighth note sub-beats between the quarter note beats. At any time you can change the Beat Ruler resolution.
-- OR -- Type a keyboard shortcut for the duration, such as "4", "8", "16", "81d", or "833" for quarter, eighth, sixteenth, dotted eighth, and eighth triplet. To learn what the shortcuts are, hold the mouse over the buttons to view the button tips. Note that the shortcuts for whole note and half note are "11" and "22" rather than the expected "1" and "2", and the shortcuts for triplet and quintuplet are "33" and "55".
As you move the mouse around, the red note snaps to precise horizontal beat locations and vertical pitch locations, thus offering you certainty about where the note will be added when you click the mouse button.
When you add the note, Composer will automatically fill in rests around the newly added note, as illustrated here:
-- OR -- Type "b" or "#" to add a flat or sharp. Other shortcuts are available for other accidentals. As you add more notes, Composer will automatically beam them together, and change stem directions if appropriate, as illustrated here:
Method 1(b): Enter notes one after another with the mouse in Sequential Note Entry Mode. With this method, you point and click the mouse to add new notes in the score from left to right, such that the duration of each note is determined by the location of the next note. To add notes using the Sequential Note Entry Mode:
The palette will then change to the Beat Ruler Palette, and the Sequential Note Entry button will be shown in the "down" position: The mouse cursor will change to a red whole note, which suggests that when you initially add the note, it will have a long note value (unless you add the note in front of another note). Here is what the red to-be-added note looks like before it is clicked into the score:
It may surprise you that the first time you do this, the duration of this newly added note will be large. The duration of the note will extend to the second barline after the location of the note. Don't worry.
Notice how the duration of the previous note is now terminated at the location of the next newly added note:
-- OR -- Type "cut". The mouse cursor will temporarily change to the shape of a razor, suggesting the idea of cutting:
Method 2: Enter notes using only your computer keyboard The above heading is not entirely accurate, because you will need to use the mouse to add the first note, or to select an already added note, as the starting point for adding new notes via your computer keyboard. To add a note using the arrow keys and key:
-- OR -- Undo the most recently added notes until only the above first note is left. If it is not already selected (highlighted in blue), then temporarily switch to Select Mode by hitting the ENTER key; select the note with the mouse; and then go back to Add Mode by hitting the ENTER key again. The ENTER key always toggles between Select Mode and Add Mode.
To create a chord using the arrow keys and and key:
To add an accidental (sharp or flat) to a newly add note:
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The remaining procedures rely on the use of a MIDI keyboard or input device. If you do not have one, then you can skip the remaining procedures in this topic, unless you would like a glimpse of how much fun it can be to have a MIDI keyboard and use it with Composer.
Method 3(a): Record the notes in real-time from your MIDI keyboard or input device. To record in real-time from your music keyboard: Follow the instructions in Recording from a Music Keyboard. With Composer's real-time recording features, you can:
Method 3(b): Use your music keyboard instead of the mouse to determine the pitches of notes, but enter the notes at your own pace, without regard to a metronome.
This is called the Step-Time Recording method of entering notes. To add notes from your MIDI keyboard in Step-Time Recording Mode:
You need only move the mouse to the horizontal position in the Beat Ruler, where you want to add the note. It does not matter where the mouse is located vertically, because the pitch of the note will be determined by what you play on the keyboard.
Method 3(c): Use your music keyboard and computer keyboard together. To add notes from your MIDI keyboard with the combination Step-Time Recording Mode and Sequential Note Entry Mode:
After you add the second note, Composer will automatically advance the insertion location by an amount equal to the duration of the most recently completed note. For example, if the second note is a quarter note after the first note you added, then the first note will have a quarter note duration, and Composer will advance the insertion point to a quarter note duration beyond the location of the second note.
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